<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>You've Got My Vote by DetLandro</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657874">You've Got My Vote</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetLandro/pseuds/DetLandro'>DetLandro</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Brooklyn Nine-Nine (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - High School, F/M, Flirting, Fluff, High School</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 04:08:43</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>2,173</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24657874</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/DetLandro/pseuds/DetLandro</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Jake Peralta didn’t get flustered easily.  He’d faced the wrath of angry teachers with a smile on his face, and he had only jumped in his seat <em>once</em> during The Conjuring.  That being said, he was currently very flustered, having walked into Mr. Holt’s classroom and made eye contact across the room with the prettiest girl he had ever seen.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jake Peralta &amp; Amy Santiago, Jake Peralta/Amy Santiago</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>84</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>You've Got My Vote</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <h1>You've Got My Vote</h1>
<p>Jake Peralta was exhausted.  His government class had been doing campaigning for a mock election, and though Jake lived to talk and win over his peers, even <em>he</em> had his limits.  He and Charles had been at this for close to an hour, chatting animatedly about their fake candidate to any of the other disgruntled teens that would listen to them.  Well, for Jake it had been a mixture of talking up the candidate and trying to stop Charles from driving anyone off.</p>
<p>(No Charles! They don’t care about Ronald McDonald’s hypothetical stance on irrigation, just say he wants to lower taxes or something!)</p>
<p>Right after Charles claimed that the McDonald’s mascot was in support of abolishing the Coast Guard, the class of Juniors that was visiting were told that their time was up, and they filed quickly out of the room, finally emptying it for the first time since the period first began.  Jake sighed and glanced at the crudely decorated posterboard behind him as he slouched into his chair.  Aside from <em>VOTE MCDONALD</em> in large bubble letters, the information was mostly unreadable, which was probably his fault for putting it off until the night before.</p>
<p>And then for getting distracted the night before.</p>
<p>Which led to Jake quickly scribbling down the political platform of a clown before rushing out his front door that morning.</p>
<p>When the door shut behind the last student, and only the seniors remained, they all breathed a collective sigh of relief.  Those who signed up for Mr. McGintley’s academic government class weren’t expecting to be doing a whole lot of actual <em>work</em> given his reputation, Jake included.  This project had required a lot more participation and presentation than anything they had done yet this year, and hopefully was more work than anything they’d do in the time that remained.  Jake sighed in contentment, at last being done with the assignment, and let his body slide off the chair and onto the cool floor.  His moment of peace was interrupted as Mr. McGintley called for the attention of the class.</p>
<p>Not noticing (or at least not acknowledging) Jake on the floor, McGintley explained that their class was to visit the honors government class, to view and vote on their projects.  Jake groaned as he sat up, and made his way towards the hallway while Charles talked excitedly about something (probably lunch).  The class trickled out the door in an orderless blob, and Jake watched as Hitchcock and Scully veered off into the bathroom.  They weren’t even attempting to be subtle about it, and McGintley didn’t realize anyway.  Jake wasn’t even <em>half</em> listening to Charles at this point, and pushed open the door to the classroom they had reached, studying the room in front of him.</p>
<p>Jake Peralta didn’t get flustered easily.  He’d faced the wrath of angry teachers with a smile on his face, and he had only jumped in his seat <em>once</em> during The Conjuring.  That being said, he was currently very flustered, having walked into Mr. Holt’s classroom and made eye contact across the room with the prettiest girl he had ever seen.</p>
<p>He saw her and his heart skipped <em>several</em> beats, and truth be told the only thing going through his head was “wow.”  She had dark hair, and it somehow shone under the poor fluorescent lighting of the classroom.  It was down around her shoulders, in light waves that Jake wondered if she’d worked on or if they fell like that naturally that morning.  Her shoulders, he noticed, were covered by a maroon pantsuit.  He laughed internally at it (only a <em>true</em> nerd would dress up to campaign for a <em>mock</em> election) and yet he couldn’t help but admire how beautiful she looked in it.  The eyes that he suddenly realized he had been staring into for far too long were also dark, and he wanted nothing more than to be able to take a closer look, to get lost in them.  Jake found himself smiling at the sight of her, and mentally decided that this girl was his destiny.</p>
<p>As long as she was cool with that.</p>
<p>“Okay Jake, let’s do this.  She’s not gonna know what hit her.”</p>
<p>//</p>
<p>Amy Santiago collapsed back in her chair.  It had been a <em>very</em> long period, and she wasn’t particularly enjoying this assignment.  Don’t get her wrong, she <em>loved</em> the research and making her pamphlets, and any excuse to work on a project with her best friend Kylie was great, but talking and persuading voters for so long was taking a serious toll.  Her cheeks hurt from trying to smile positively at everyone who came up to their table, and she had fielded more stupid questions than she could count from Juniors who weren’t taking this seriously.</p>
<p>Kylie was sitting down in her chair next to Amy, casually scrolling through her phone.  Normally, Amy would have tried to get her to remain vigilant but they had already talked to literally <em>everyone</em> in Mr. Cozner’s class.  He had been chatting with Mr. Holt for a while, and subsequently all his students were now just waiting for him to say it was time to leave.</p>
<p>The door to the classroom opened.  She turned her head towards the sound, in time to see Mr. McGintley enter the room, leading the academic government class behind him.  She watched as they filtered in, recognizing a few faces before she made eye contact with a boy who was the last to walk in.  He was cute, Amy thought, even though he looked a little sloppy today.  He was wearing a simple zip-up hoodie and sweatpants, but it suited him well.  Amy’s cheeks may have hurt, but she found herself with a simple smile on her face as she thought about the contrast between their two outfits.  She suddenly realized she was staring, and not only that, but he was staring back at her.</p>
<p>Amy turned away as someone stepped in front of their table.  She and Kylie put their focus on the girl who was talking to them about their candidate, answering all her questions before sending her off to either learn about the other candidates or cast her vote.  She sighed again, her professional smile faltering before she realized she had a new voter in front of her.  Zip-up hoodie was browsing through one of her pamphlets, reading the information Amy had carefully laid out.  His eyes glanced up to her and he spoke before she could get the chance.</p>
<p>“So I suppose you’re the campaign manager around here?  You’re dressed well for the part,” he said gesturing towards her clothes with a slight smirk.</p>
<p>Amy looked down at herself before meeting his eyes again.  “It’s professional.”</p>
<p>“That it is,” he nodded while turning the pamphlet over to view the back.  “I must say that I’m really liking what I see here.” His eyes found hers, “and the brochures don’t look so bad either,” he finished with a wink.</p>
<p>Amy chuckled despite herself, it was a horrible attempt at a pick-up line but the blatant mockery of it in his voice made something resembling butterflies flutter in her stomach.  She spotted Kylie giving her a look out of the corner of her eye but then the boy was talking to her again.</p>
<p>“What do you say we catch a movie sometime beautiful?”  He said with the smirk he’d been wearing still perched on his face.</p>
<p>“Excuse me?”</p>
<p>“How’s Friday?”</p>
<p>“Are you….flirting with me?”  She realized it was a stupid question the second it left her mouth and his raised eyebrow confirmed that he thought the same thing.  <em>Obviously</em> he was flirting with her but she was still a little confused as to how she got into this particular conversation.  He simply shrugged at her and leaned forward on his elbows.</p>
<p>“Is it working?”</p>
<p>Amy leaned forward too, mirroring his stance across the table before she answered,</p>
<p>“Jake….we’ve been dating for nine months.”</p>
<p>The smirk disappeared and a genuine smile crept onto his face, as if hearing her say it blossomed the same happiness in him that she felt when she said it.  She didn’t know what sort of game her boyfriend was playing, but she was happy to play along if it made him smile.  After all, she supposed it was making her smile a lot too.  He was always so good at that, and already her weariness from earlier was long forgotten.</p>
<p>“Aw dang, you’re taken?” he said as his face relaxed into a pout.</p>
<p>“Yes you dork,” Amy teased, and smiled a bit shyly as she threw in a “happily” with as much over the top lovey-dovey enthusiasm as she could muster.</p>
<p>Kylie gagged a little next to her, but Amy resisted the urge to throw a glare her way as she kept her piercing gaze locked on Jake.  He let his act drop for just a second to blush at her words before throwing up the persona again.</p>
<p>“Alright then beautiful stranger who is <em>happily</em> taken, why don’t you tell me about this candidate of yours.”</p>
<p>“Do you actually want to hear about her?  Or are you just gonna vote for us no matter what I say because I’m just so <em>beautiful</em>?”</p>
<p>He pursed his lips as he thought about it, before grinning again and sharing his epiphany.</p>
<p>“As beautiful as you are….I can’t just throw away something as <em>critical</em> as my <em>only</em> vote on the looks of a campaign manager.”  He leaned forward to perch back on the table, legs spread behind him at a ridiculous angle as he tried to crouch down to her level.  “I’ll vote for your girl….but you gotta kiss me right here, right now.”</p>
<p>“Jake….”</p>
<p>“No macking out hard or nothing, just a quick smooch and I’ll cast my ballot straight away before Mr. Holt even sees.”</p>
<p>Amy glanced around the room.  Most people were chatting about the projects on display, while others were on their phones without even the pretense of paying attention to their education.  Mr. Holt wasn’t looking in their direction at the moment, he was currently trying to eat one of his nutrition bricks at his desk while fending off Charles bemoaning the lack of flavor in the teacher’s snack of choice.  Surely she could lean forward and quickly press her lips to his without anyone noticing.  But….that would mean letting her boyfriend win this silly game he was<br/>playing, and Amy wouldn’t be Amy without challenging him, so she decided to do so.  Two could play at this game.</p>
<p>“How’s this?  Give me your vote, or a <em>‘quick smooch’</em> is the <em>MAXIMUM</em> you will receive for a <em>looooooong</em> while.”</p>
<p>His eyes narrowed, trying to read her face to see if it was a bluff, but she held strong.</p>
<p>“Using blackmail to get what you want?  How very unlike you Ames.”</p>
<p>“You were trying to blackmail me first!”</p>
<p>“Tooshie.”</p>
<p>“It’s touché.”</p>
<p>“Whatevs.”</p>
<p>She watched as he mulled his options over in his head.  She could see his thought process in his head, the gears that were turning almost visible to her through his brown eyes.  He stood up straight, bringing his hand to his chin to tap at it in an attempt to look pensive.  After another moment his smile reappeared, fully genuine again, and responded.</p>
<p>“Well….you’ve convinced me, you’ve got my vote.”  He extended his hand for her to shake.  She took it firmly and he winced at the strong grip, pulling his hand away and massaging at his fingers while muttering, not for the first time, “stupid seminar…”</p>
<p>His face brightened again and he looked away as McGintley called out that it was time to leave.</p>
<p>“Ok, I’m gonna go, good seeing you Kylie.”</p>
<p>Kylie huffed at being acknowledged for the first time, “Bye Jake.”</p>
<p>He started to turn and leave but pivoted back towards Amy, the cocky demeanor from earlier fully gone and an actual question on his mind.</p>
<p>“Oh wait Amy do you legit wanna see a movie Friday?  That one about Churchill that you won’t stop talking about is out.”</p>
<p>She thought for a moment before she looked back down at the table, neatly organizing her pamphlets.  She tried to answer as nonchalantly as possible, but a grin was threatening to appear on the corner of her lips.</p>
<p>“Nah we can do that some other time, for Friday I feel like I haven’t seen Die Hard in forever.”</p>
<p>“Ames I love you, for realz.”</p>
<p>Amy felt her cheeks turn pink and her heart flutter the same way it always did since he started saying those three words three months ago.  She looked up at him: at the brown curls covering his forehead, at the huge goofy grin that he wore more than anyone she’d ever met, and at the softness in his eyes that she saw whenever he looked at her.  And she knew that she meant her response yesterday, would mean it today, and would mean it forever.</p>
<p>“I love you too.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! Kudos and comments are appreciated, reach out if you want to talk to me!</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>